Willie Nile @ the WAMC Performing Arts Studio, 1/23/10

By GREG HAYMES
Special to the Times Union
ALBANY – There’s no denying Willie Nile’s power as a singer-songwriter. Although his career has had its share of ups and downs, the Buffalo-born, NYC-based musician keeps churning out one great song after another.
Last year, he played a solo show at WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, and he showcased a number of new tunes from his album, “House of a Thousand Guitars,” which was still two months away from its release date.
On Saturday night at the same theater, he hobbled out to the microphone on crutches – a rock ‘n’ roll injury – and opened his show with a blast through that album’s title track, as well as “Run,” the album’s second tune.
Then he launched into another batch of new songs from an upcoming album, “The Innocent Ones,” which he just recently recorded. And they were unquestionably some of the best songs that Nile has written in his long career, which began 30 years ago with his debut album. “The Innocent Ones” was a rousing anthem that would have fit perfectly into the songlist at Friday night’s national Haiti relief telethon. “Good News” mined a similiar theme, but Nile switched over to the grand piano and shifted into glorious gospel mode that had the audience singing along – with a song that they’d never heard before.
Better still was another flag-waver, “One Guitar.” Sitting down, Nile banged away at his acoustic guitar swung around to his hip and poured his passion into the microphone: “I’m a soldier marching in an army/I’ve got no gun to shoot/But what I’ve got is one guitar/I got this one guitar.”
On Saturday, Nile was accompanied by his co-songwriter Frankie Lee on percussion, and it was amazing just how much power and drive Lee managed to coax from a single snare drum with his brushes.
Not that the whole night was one big long anthem. Nile knows how to pace a show – even sitting down. Another new song, “Sunrise in New York City” had a music hall flavor, while “Streets of New York” blended together the best of Dylan and Springsteen. Dedicated to singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle, who died on Monday, “The Crossing” was a Celtic-flavored ballad that was at once understated and majestic. And “When One Stands” was a hope-filled reggae ode to the power of solidarity, resonating with the influence of Bob Marley.
Spanning the history of rock ‘n’ roll, Nile also served up Buddy Holly’s joyous “I’m Gonna Love You, Too,” as well as a show-closing Ramones medley of “Blitzkreig Bop,” “California Sun” and “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.”
Yes, Willie Nile is a wonderful singer-songwriter. But he’s also a flat-out rocker – even sitting down.
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Willie Nile
With Joe U’rso
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, January 23
Where: The WAMC Performing Arts Studio, 339 Central Ave., Albany
Musical highlights: The brand new “One Guitar” and the haunting but hard-driving “Cell Phones Ringing (In the Pockets of the Dead)”
Length: Nile – 95 minutes; U’rso – 30 minutes
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Greg Haymes is a freelance writer from Castleton-On-Hudson.